top stories tonight president obama says there's evidence chemical weapons have been used in syria but pledges actually only if it's approved there were used by president is sad we explore that one just a couple of minutes time also headlining tonight more targeted into massacres to another bomb explosion of busy square it's taken thirteen lives and wounded dozens in the second such attack as many days. also america's war on corruption in afghanistan ends up feeding the warlords and drug cartels revelations of most of the washington's been showering kabul with millions of dollars.

it is joined us today or moscow my name is kevin o. in these are the international first and as the just mentioned president obama says the u.s. has evidence that chemical weapons have been used in syria he also said it would be a game changer for the u.s. although only if it's approved the arms of being used by the governor and i was showing you know hi there that's the crucial thing a game changer if used by the government was what though if it turned out when the investigators go in they do a bit more rooting around that it was the rebels that were using it if you saw what . well president barack obama failed to address that option the only option that he gave was a scenario in which he said if the u.s. finds out that the syrian government has used chemical weapons against the rebels then obama strongly indicated that the u.s. would consider military intervention but he did not address what would happen if it was in fact the rebels or members of the opposition that have used chemical weapons

throughout this ongoing conflict and war taking place inside syria now this u.s. intervention to go on going on two year civil war has of course drawn to the attentions of the u.s. and western allies and opposition indicated at syrian president bashar al assad has to go but at this point barack obama says that u.s. intelligence officials don't know who has used chemical weapons inside of syria how they were used or when they were used the u.s. cannot confirm if it was in fact damascus who's used the weapons now obama said that his administration doesn't have a chain of custody that establishes exactly what has happened in syria in the meantime baskets and the opposition have repeatedly accused one another of using chemical weapons on tuesday syria's ambassador to the u.n. allege that terrorist groups fighting alongside the rebels had used chemical

material during an attack near the city of live and an attempted to a plane that incident on the syrian government in the meantime the united nations says damascus has so far refused to allow with a team of experts inside the country to investigate the use of chemical weapons but syrian officials say they would like a detailed list of what u.n. officials would be probing before entering the country going back to your initial question the u.s. president has not indicated if the opposition in syria would suffer any consequences if it is found out that they are the ones that used chemical what's number one i was talking to them today was new some of the sensitive issues that came up we talked to but what would. that's right one of the many sensitive issues obama addressed was the issue of closing the prison at guantanamo bay he said the idea that the hate group of individuals indefinitely without trial is contrary to the interests reputations and morals of america while the us president has shown

his strong will to close the prison he lacks the necessary support from congress and that support is what would give obama the authority and the funding to close the prison and now obama's comments come of course as the hunger strike at guantanamo bay prison enters its fourth day this is a story that our first reported back in march and has continued to cover we have to cut and today at least one hundred detainees are believed to be starving themselves or reported twenty one are being force fed five of whom are being hospitalized of the one hundred sixty six detainees still that moment half have been cleared for release one other important issue that the u.s. president addressed in his press conference was the issue of the boston bombings and russia's cooperation in the ongoing investigation that is what obama underscored out of moscow is very much helping washington with its ongoing probe

now as we've been reporting in two thousand and eleven in moscow it did warn washington about tomlinson knives possible links to extremist groups obama said the boston bombings illustrate the danger of self right lizzie shen of possible terrorists inside the united states and he's instructed his counterterrorism team to figure out what can be done to prevent or identify self radicalization report on our correspondent in new york. or folks are back in syria now where a powerful blast has rocked the heart of the syrian capital again killed thirteen people wounded dozens of explosion i say again because it comes just twenty four hours after the earlier deadly attack in central damascus that targeted the prime minister that local correspondent was in the witness tuesday's blast and told us what he saw was something like. two minutes away from it when i passed through that this is the big explosion destroyed most of the historic square which is

called maggi in the middle of the last because it's very close to the. building of the mr frontier wall and i have seen three with no heads and they have seen how the ambulance guys rushed inside and said the square from everywhere how the clause just to close and how the city came to. see how people were crying and where they're. going and weeping over their destroyed properties all around the area if you compare it with that on a convoy yesterday you can see many similarities previous. to that was targeting the prime minister but it's close to a kindergarten and a school and today is complete it's a big square full of people of it the one who did move was do we seen that the two the two placing. exactly that this is would have only seen video and this has only

civilians and this is the same way that happened with all the. guardian newspaper believes the rebels apparent terror tactic should send alarm signals to western nations. quite clearly that they're able to spread terror among the population in damascus to terrorize civilians and it's absolutely shiny for these people are being backed by my country the u.k. like france by the west powers these are terrorist attacks let's call them what they are they haven't be condemned by william hague or john kerry or we can i think that's absolutely appalling was it taken place in tel aviv or riyadh or anywhere else in a country which was a western i their neighbor be roundly condemned but they're not and it's quite appalling that these so-called rebels with western help trying to bomb a way to power in syria have been spreading. and i think that the likes of william hague who got blood on my hands i'm afraid will some serious refugees have found

a new home in russia's south we've got a special report on that coming up bit later on r.t. . and every day she says other body. syria or saudia in arabic. in the north pole or beginning the far from alice kilowatts. the syrian woman is a hero. trying to protect their. name but then there are sure. to build a new life in russia here. europe's

latest unemployment figures are in mill may good and all the rate went up across most of the european union in march according to you now look at the figures the disappointing and rising year by year the because i spent a greece the worst affected in greece and the numbers now watering twenty seven percent spain is not far behind both more than one in four people unemployed right now there's the figures for you and talking of the young people it's them of course for in fact the jobless rate for them is more than double the national figure is test for a silly reporting for our team now why it takes more than just numbers to see the true extent of the damage. the unemployment rate in the years only recently of perceptive for those aged twenty five and below in countries like spain and greece that number is as high as more than fifty percent with very little signs of any economic improvement now for those who are looking for a job that search is no longer just about trying to find work many are now trying

to leave their home countries. like niccolo wriggles a biology graduate from italy now working in a show in brussels and the situation in italy. because the only thing i was able to get is a really short contract for like free mouth for six months with absolutely no possibility of growing out in an industry or in the laboratory anything most two of most of them were totally unpaid because you can't really think of your future he says it wasn't a walk in the park in beijing either of the companies that have the knowledge of both french and dutch a barrier that may be hard to overcome but perhaps still more attractive for some the going back home to rich. in. the person the person of young people in the greats from italy grew up by thirty forty

percent in two thousand and twelve i really don't know we're into tools and information and it's not just the citizens feed the kids for nurse would come to europe to seek new opportunities started their will business is building their lives to now will also change the sound of the stand leading b.c. all the way back to the native ecuador and while homesickness was the initial reason for the move she has no regrets about making that decision to sex but i'm scared also i love the man many foreigners decided to leave greece and move to countries like germany and switzerland but the greek state is really a difficult thing when for instance. this man he used to get one and a half thousand euros are now paid just nine hundred our place has been open for two years even though it's still new i believe we have very good prospects for the future this is something she says just isn't possible here right here to trent she look at the figures in countries like ireland some people argue that

a whole generation has left and perhaps you know. i don't think so i believe rather stay here for the same also says i to the us so. let's go back now for our top story a get up to speed more on the blast from the center of damascus it's two hours after a similar one targeting the prime minister told to come away as news in the region . to signal blast as i say within twenty four hours are we seeing a terrifying trend here unraveling in front of our eyes unraveling for the right now it is actually a terrorism that is supported by the persian gulf country and unfortunately by the united states by it's a proxy war that is conducting against syria obviously what has been taking a blaze in the past couple weeks the major achievement of syria actually it was the syrian army was able to drive these opposition from

a. camel and we've lost the sound. yes indeed guys will try to come out as if you can still have your trunk about a little bit later as far as i'm aware anyway we've lost the sound to you we'll come back to you later awfully sorry about that ok i hope you stay with us a lot more come more news in fact just a couple of minutes take a very quick break here we. will. technology innovation elements around russia we'll go to the future.

about international and in the very heart of moscow. millions of untraceable dollars have been handed out by the u.s. to afghanistan throughout the past decade in exchange for loyalty president karzai confirm the regular pay of kabul spends the cash going to fish account next looks at the american way of dealing with the region's booming corruption. both u.s.

and afghan officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to the new york times and many paid tens of dollars what they say was go to the office of president karzai the afghan government has received billions of dollars of u.s. taxpayers money but the officials say that the secret cash went to fuel corruption in the country the cia apparently delivers the cash every month in suitcases backpacks and plastic bags. much of the money goes to paying off warlords and politicians many of whom have ties to the drug trade and in some cases the taliban the result of that appears to be that the agency empowers the american diplomats agents say they're trying to dismantle president karzai was asked about the goetia money and. basically dismissed the payment as no big deal saying the plea. for various purposes such as the cia declines to comment another u.s. official has been quoted as saying the biggest source of corruption in afghanistan

was the united states afghan officials quoted in this new york times reported last year of. security council or individually on the payroll there was an interesting story with the administrative chief counsel mohamed. he was arrested in two thousand and ten in connection with the sprawling tied together afghan. taliban financing and the opium trade president karzai having released within hours and the cia then helped persuade the obama. push possibly because they didn't want the cia connection discovered in the alleged corruption scheme because that would be a story of a dog chasing its tail in washington where america's money of course comes from what is the world's biggest defense budget bush. richard becker spoke to me says as long as it continues to swell the more americans are going to fall into poverty.

missing you look at the cia operations in afghanistan which really began that in two thousand and one of the one nine hundred seventy nine and the nine hundred eighty s. the cia largest operation and soon tire history was carried out in afghanistan and the billions and billions of dollars that have flowed and yet today doesn't thirteen afghanistan ranks exactly last so it really indicates what about the corrupting influence that the cia interventionists head over all of these years and continues to have today and they're spending a vast sums of money the real the us military budget this year overall will be over a trillion dollars and yet we have today in the united states nearly forty seven partition according to government itself is now either living in poverty or as low income and the interest of the people have been sacrificed on the altar of militarism. so the question is against the vote we're talking about on this night our big story today it's always good to hear from you roy this is what you're

telling us and it's been pretty much like this all night it turned away to to back up twenty four percent by far the majority of you there think it's the us way of using bing to attain means and contacts in a forward they were looking at of course is another thing six percent of you think it's a secret operation to corrupt the taliban six percent this flooding terrorist with counterfeit cash for tears last thinks of multi-purpose a to help the afghans but again the big question is is it really getting there if you saw a story yesterday you'd see the problems they've still got there the violence is still happening people saying but isn't at all being effective judging by this only four percent of you agree with that two party dotcoms a place that you'll see. the

new cancers in the spotlight again egypt withdrew from the norm for the for ration treaty talks in geneva on monday over a failure to plan for a middle east free of nuclear weapons clearly referring there to israel it emerged that if submarine reportedly capable of carrying and launching nuclear armed missiles i spoke to british m.p. jeremy call brittney's also vice chairman of the campaign for nuclear disarmament told me earlier that this could spark he worried a nuclear arms race in the region well we know has nuclear weapons and has the land based system to deliver them and could have a sea based system any country in the region that has a nuclear power system in egypt saudi arabia or could develop their own nuclear weapons if they fit and egypt. i hope does not develop nuclear weapons i hope nobody develops nuclear weapons but clearly the danger now. it is very nuclear arms race in the middle east with all the equipment that could bring about

a very they should be used we need urgent action now the european union the united states working together in a position to put the most enormous pressure on on israel either through sanctions or withdrawing from the trade agreement which also has a human rights closer than it we need action urgently by those two key players in the situation. more stories there tonight the mystery of the bangladesh tower block collapse awful seeing a woman nearly all now we hear of the big western firms that will make you close the so they won't pay for compensation to the victim is just gets worse right on the arkansas right now that warms those affected by last month's exxon all spill that there's still toxic trouble in the neighborhood take a long time to clear again big mess there if you want to read up more about it so keep track of the latest comes the place to do it.

is. very disappointing unemployment figures. now get some thoughts from chris clark he's from nottingham trent universe the business school in the u.k. hi there chris thanks for being with us we're reporting yesterday that greece is white to the fifteen thousand civil service jobs often at the same time that we hear about these appalling job figures. i think if you can use the word wisdom when asking me a question about how about the european union it's a bit of a contradiction i mean the perceived wisdom of that scenario is obviously if greece is going to get better it's going to need to continue to slash costs and you know all it needs to do what it's doing obviously is not really very logical. the

european commission's recent predicted growth for the year well you know is that realistic or is it kind of slight but a pile of sky thinking. i think probably what european commission is about predicting economic growth forecast and you could probably see them to be honest with you i think back to where we are european growing and. point in the future what i would say is that. even if you level the playing field at the moment you took away all the debt and all the problems in europe because it is extremely difficult to see how it would grow going forward because in order to compete with the chinese and the indian audience what it needs is to be regulated markets and to cut the bureaucracy and the red tape and the un elected officials that basically run it what europe is in fact doing at the moment is the exact opposite i feel extremely difficult to have a vibrant growth going forward and i guess that's not going to change anytime soon because that's long been a criticism isn't it. absolutely i mean that's going to that's you know it's getting worse i mean you know the general perception marketplace that you know

europe is starting to get its problems sorted out i mean it hasn't even begun to tackle its problems yet and in fact while i would argue it's actually doing exactly the wrong thing it's not even making an attempt at least related to markets in order to compete going forward and instead what we see is a whole new swathe of regulation going right across the euro zone and chris cyprus few hours ago it approved its president it bailout deal it's going to pose heavy losses and ensure depositors seems to go from bad to worse there do you think we're going to get more of a push to leave the. to leave the european union after this cyprus is going. well as far cyprus is going to very very difficult situation and i really don't want to sound like a hindsight harry but the. the answer to that is that they probably should not have joined the euro in the first place and now now they're in they're a bit of a prisoner to their own destiny to be honest with you it's very difficult to see how they're going to leave the euro zone because obviously that is going to incur

a massive amount of costs which i'm not sure can withstand at the moment so it's a very difficult situation there in. and i honestly don't know how they're going to get out of it you can't get the impression that the big wigs only kind of out of touch were really happening go back to the first answer you gave me there and we've also been reporting this week about. the spat between france and germany is all kind of falling apart at last. i think i think unfortunately and i hate to use the vision is there a feeling of. what yes it will be european vision has been falling apart for years but unfortunately people who run europe have still got that vision of a still hell bent on pursuing that vision. you know so i think they're too arrogant to start to have doubts at this stage and you know that is very very worrying for europe going forward as well begs the question what more could it take before maybe they see sense of assure you of thinking up afraid you've got no time to watch that

because we're out of times chris thanks ever so much for being with us in order to get much appreciated thank you by. the assad imprisonment of ukraine's former prosecutor machine has been ruled illegal by the european court of human rights but judges dismissed his complaint of physical mistreatment while in custody she seventy seven years for abuse in office of a gas deals with russia and his lecture is your school been following the case from the very beginning. defending lawyers of you believe that this decision by the european court of human rights will see her walk free especially after her plea for parole last week was turned down there was a certain method when the one of the politicians off for iraq the former interior minister you listened to was released on a presidential pardon several weeks ago but this is not the case of too much angle because on the one hand the current ruling establishment here they want to be friends with the european union they are spying for european integration but on the other hand they of course see that too much ankle is the biggest political enemy and it's far more comfortable for them to see her remain behind bars and they also

have one trick up their sleeve they can always say that look you are ruling the decision to convict her of seven years of prison as illegitimate but look there are two cases currently ongoing again sir one of them includes association to a murder of a deputy in nine hundred ninety six so it's interesting to see where it goes from here but we already have the reaction from the ruling party which said that this decision by the european court for human rights may not become valid grounds for releasing tymoshenko in fact this is been a bone of contention between europe and key for some time we remember last year when host of the football championship the euro twenty twelve some of the european officially courted the tournament because of the machine go and her case the question is whether a key if will be willing to kneel to this pressure by europe given the latest statements by the ruling party doesn't seem that this time it will down to the pressure as well. the owner of a nightclub in central russia where more than one hundred fifty people died in a fire almost four years ago has been sentenced to nearly ten years behind bars

another six people will be jailed for four years minimum each for the chief our inspectors been suspended his job and plays at the horse night club in perman two thousand and nine began when fireworks were set off inside the overcrowded building flames then quickly took hold of the wicked fittings of the walls and ceiling of many victims trapped crushed with a panic to escape. world news now and first off in libya government have surrounded the justice ministry in tripoli demanding the dismissal of all members of colonel gadhafi former regime from government posts trucks carrying anti-aircraft guns a park near the building a separate siege of the foreign ministry meantime also calling for x. regime members to go it's now into its third day. crowds of palestinians join the funeral of his child who was killed in an israeli airstrike well driving a motorcycle earlier today two other men were also reported to have been injured in the attack the israeli military claim michelle was involved in extensive terrorist activity including a recent rocket attack on the same israeli city that is the first deadly air strike

on palestinian territory since tele beav reached a truce with militants last november. before footage coming up shocking a video has emerged showing a terrifying cargo plane crash huge plane to air field base north of the afghan capital all seven people on board were killed in the incident on monday if you go there it's a boeing seven four seven four hundred huge plane you can barely believe your eyes if you are in vehicles another cargo to do boy with this is a the plane's nose suddenly rose just after takeoff it seemed to stall before coming and want to mess the jet was operated by a florida based subsidiary of national cargo the taliban says it caused the crash but nato denies that the jet was attacked insists it's still investigating the cause of the tragedy and it's also added that there was no military activity in the region at the time because a key transport hub for u.s. led military operations in afghanistan of thoughts of the crew the big mess isn't it awful to see pictures like a to do charlie shots in such

a very important example about osama ok it's not exactly on the button turned thirty one pm eastern time thank you for being with us time for business look at the stories that you covered on my facebook friends what's been happening for a while over yet has i mean i think since the i.p.o. came out everyone's been thinking you know how how much further can it go because really most people are already friends on facebook and so in developed countries it's reached its pinnacle that's exactly what our analysts said anyway always going to talk about luxembourg as well have it well it doesn't want to be a tax haven would you believe want it doesn't want it is not very fashionable because of the cyprus situation it brings a lot of dosh to leave exactly yeah but it's trying to rip the image. so much so that it's actually willing to give away bank tauzin tree in order to not to be a tax haven as we talk about that as well of course i go through the markets as well obviously today's last trading day for russia may holidays those come here so there are plenty come up and details after the break through to them of liberty.

most people in the western world would agree that having laws that officially create second class citizens is totally unacceptable we can look at the way jews were treated in nazi germany or black starting apartheid in south africa and the slavery jim crow areas in the usa as examples of legally dividing society by necessity i think most people with their modern suppose would find these practices be bob barrack and backwards but my question is that why is there to this day officially sanctioned second class citizens in certain countries or to be more accurate i should say non-citizen residents of the two million people in latvia around three hundred thousand of them are considered non-citizen residents who can neither vote nor hold public office these non-citizens are russian speakers of

various ethnic backgrounds whose children also by birth bearer of the non-citizen status not happy being on the bad side of apartheid the non-citizens have logically decided to vote for their own parliament because they can't elect or participate in the left field what even if the parliament has no power whatsoever it will be their chance to shine a light on the issue which the mainstream media has been keeping quiet for years you know you'd think that people would be outraged over segregation but what happens to russians and russian speakers is just not cool or hip or trendy or convenient enough for the mainstream media to take notice but that's just my opinion.

more news today. these are the images the world seeing from the streets of canada. operations are on. the program and you know what business here on r.t. welcome this evening here in moscow. facebook is losing millions of friends per month users of the world's biggest social networking else urging for fresh ways to communicate with their friends so to suggest facebook's expansion in the u.s. u.k. and other major european countries has paid and as you can see in the last six months ny minute news is in the us where social began its global domination have shut down their account just so with the u.k.

ready following suit with two million visitors choosing to leave the site so with that in mind earlier today i asked daniel knapp from advertising research what facebook is becoming such tunnel. people were not born to communicate the way that facebook proposes we see especially younger users moving towards other platforms instagram for instance snap chat pinterest tumblr and so forth but if we look across the globe especially at emerging markets asia africa there is a massive user base for facebook which is still growing and will continue to do so for the next five or ten years let's talk about the users that are maybe getting a little bit bored of their bit tired it's not quite as cold as it once was do you think there's perhaps maybe too much spam going on or do you think people are searching for the next big thing i don't think people are consciously looking for the next big thing but there is second of decentralizing movement people are

versifying where they look for information and how they interact with friend facebook came around when there wasn't that much choice that was my space in those facebook and in some regions other networks but on the back of facebook in the back of this whole social networking hype of other platforms has come around and people are just keen on experimenting they're not consciously looking to give the cotton facebook but just want to communicate with people in different ways just by showing pictures by chatting trying out new and fun things but they are turning their back on facebook because facebook has gotten dull and boring but just perfect sounding the way they're communicating ok let's talk about social networks in general than what is the feeling i think that we're all going to get back and talk to people in person once again or get back on the telephone or do you think social networks ahead to stay on my knee develop stronger what about the telephone certainly is a is a very romantic notion we see people are cutting their course from the fixed line

phone blood is going more while and and chatting sending pictures so this is this is not going to happen and always with the internet we'll see new ways of your visual communication or text in the occasion so this. it in the form of one to many communication on many to many in social networks a one to one is an entirely different question but on the back of the technologies new business models and new inventions will start to communicate very very differently who knows what's going to happen with so google glass for instance so there are a lot of opportunities for people to try out new technologies or to find ways of communicating and we're not going back to how things once worked i think so that if we look at facebook friends. research shows that these are not really often our real friends our closest friends are people that we chat with person they're not necessarily those we see with and study sport so real questions will stay but

mediated communication will change and we may as well. and on to the markets us stocks are rising continuing their trade their highs that say that it has on his right to drop in business up to see offset a rise in consumer confidence does move on and see what happens in europe and indeed they mostly declined that c.e.o. corporate results continue to be strong we have beaten lloyds on the foot i also want to mention the slovenia's credit rating was caused by the it is. the russell markets and both the r.t.s. and the mice ended up the week this short trading week with gains is the may holiday's ahead despite falling oil price said i would check out how the russian ruble performed as well. and the central bank here russia is also going to be closed as well so you can see that she declined against the u.s. dollar that's how the markets are looking now moving on. luxembourg is eager to escape their tax haven image so much so that the wealthy country in the e.u.

is willing to divulge confidential information in its pursuit of transparency the country has a population of just half a million but a banking sector worth maybe three. radio and accept that this figure is twenty two times greater than the tiny country's g.d.p. so it's no wonder luxembourg has a reputation as he used capital for international tax evaders with a global crackdown on tax avoiders luxembourg is under pressure to lose its grand duchy image. and that is all we've got time for but coming out we hear from dr rashid khalidi overall of how the u.s. has undermined peace in the middle east.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. do we speak your language any form of the will or not of the. news programs and

documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angles couldn't stories. you hear. then surely i'll teach spanish find out more visit eye to eye on t.v. dot com. the new cover international airport in the very heart of moscow.

he is an author and professor at columbia university and his new book is called brokers of deceit how the u.s. has undermined peace in the middle east joining our team now for an exclusive one on one interview is dr rashid khalidi thank you very much for taking the time stick with me today pleasure may you argue that over thirty plus years the u.s. has used language to undermine the peace process and you say even the phrase peace process when spoken by u.s. administrations has been disingenuous why so well the term peace process itself is an example of what i'm talking about orwellian language and saying things that are fundamentally not true united states brokered peace treaty between egypt and israel took of a number of years but they got it they got a result president carter started working on palestinian autonomy so-called another

word that's used in my view in a disingenuous way in one nine hundred seventy eight thirty five years ago so united states has been engaged in a process there's no question for three and a half decades it hasn't produced peace and i are here in this book that in fact if you look structurally at what where they were trying to attempt they couldn't achieve peace what they were trying to do in essence was to do something that was under a ceiling of what israel would allow and now that did not amount to anything that the palestinians could ever accept it didn't really amount to real statehood or real self-determination so it was a process which was described as a peace process but it really wasn't it couldn't have led to a resolution of this conflict what is the u.s. gain from undermining peace in the middle east many would argue that it's in the u.s. is to create peace in the winter or to station well in the it's clear that achieving peace between major countries like egypt and israel for example wasn't the u.s. interest it was in u.s. interest because a clash between egypt and israel had the potential back in the days of the cold war

of a superpower conflict in one seventy three for example and the palestine issue there is no. no weight of opinion no body of powerful interests that say you have got to resolve this because it will be harmful in this and that way to the united states if you don't there was bleeding occupation of iraq when you had a number of leading strategic figures the then secretary of defense secretary gates the then chairman of the joint chiefs of staff admiral mullen and general petraeus when he was commander in iraq all of whom said america's bias on this issue america's fear uter resolve this harms it in the arab world but you don't hear that forcefully argued in washington what you do hear forcefully argued is people who say no no you mustn't push beyond certain israeli red lines and these people have tended to prevail in the past here it's essential saying that the u.s. right now is acting as so-called lawyer for for israel they're not as as mediators or brokers between israel and and palestine in the book i talk about numerous cases

where this is exactly what happened and i end up using the term that was in fact not even i didn't even coined the term israel's lawyer it was an american diplomat who's been engaged for decades in this aaron david miller and he himself was quoting sector state kissinger so i think it's an apt term in fact united states has not been an honest broker when i was an advisor to the palestinian negotiators from ninety one to ninety three we saw multiple instances of the united states supposedly mediating but in fact being even less forthcoming than were the israelis themselves and so you know clearly the united states has not been an honest broker or a fair mediator in fact it has tended to be even less even less willing to take certain daring moves than where the israel is at certain past stance and have had a certain level of confidence in certain us presidents right you argue that right now the palestinians carry deep disappointment in the u.s. president barack obama. well. a number of us presidents including president obama

at early stages in their presidency have tried to push beyond the arm biloba of what is accepted in terms of what the israelis will let you get away with basically what the lobby will accept what israeli prime ministers will fight you over they say obama's tried i would argue the president president reagan tried president bush sr tried president clinton tried and president obama tried but in each case they have been they've been they've been rebuffed and they haven't pursued pursued or persisted if they were trying to do so i think we've now reached a point where. a interim supposedly interim solution this palestinian authority which was established back in the mid ninety's has been there for almost twenty years and there has been no resolution of the conflict and palestinians of i think lost confidence not just in this president but in the united states says that mean of the prospects of an israeli palestinian resolution under obama. will not happen will it be eight years wasted when he leaves the white house do you think that what we're four years and counting have been wasted so far i think that is in

a sense doesn't change its policy you know it's will not only not help to resolve this conflict it will continue to do what it's done for most of these past thirty five years it will make it worse and it's this is not just a neutral actor it's it is is supporting israel diplomatically it's because it gives israel three billion dollars a year in military assistance much of it much of which seems to me to be used in ways that are in violation of u.s. law in ways that are not defensive bombing gaza for example and finally it's american money from five zero one c three tax deductible charitable organizations that is funneled by the hundreds of dollars to the settlement enterprise in the west bank this is active american participation in making a settlement less likely so united states has not only not helped to resolve this i would argue it's with the situation where the last nights it does give support and financial aid to palestine as well correct to the passing authority alison that are most of which goes to security forces which under the agreements that were. back in the mid ninety's do much more to provide security for israel and in the is illegal

israeli settlers than they do for secure provide security for palestinians in the occupied arts they don't protect the palestinians when israelis carry out an incursion or are not down doors in the middle of the night where there was try and stop palestinians from resisting or attacking israelis who are illegally settling in the occupied territories or otherwise present israeli military forces why do so that's what usaid does in other words going to the palestinians most of it so you argue that u.s. administrations have used corrupt language to manipulate the israeli palestinian track but is that the hallmarks for the u.s. foreign policy for that entire region or is it just exclusive to the israel palestine issue well i mean i think this kind of language is not exclusive to this conflict or to the united states i think. i was thinking that syria without what i want is that everything i give it i can think of many many instances i think that the arab israeli conflict and especially the palestinian israeli component of it

which is the core is particularly susceptible to mis making and to language which is really fundamentally false i mean israel is a democratic and a jewish state where there are all kinds of rights that are denied to non jews so how much can it be democratic but we say it's a democratic state to be are we are with other countries for i understand that but those those critiques i think if you if you say x. x. country or y. countries democratic supposedly we should examine that in this case it tends to be passed over similarly people talk about security israeli security well israeli security is a term that's very very broad it's used is it's used to cover things that involve inflicting insecurity on other people is that you know these are the kinds of uses of language that i argue in this conflict are particularly prevalent and are particularly dishonest now i'm sure that you can find many many bills in other conflicts do you believe that palestinian. the palestinians are generally interested in breaking the status quo or do you think that they have learned to

live with the circumstance as it is now and breaking the saddest may be too uncomfortable no i think that most past it the person suffered more than anybody else in this conflict there's no question and so they would in their overwhelming majorities love to see this conflict solved now that said unfortunately there are some palestinians who profit from the status quo associated with the regimes in the normal and gaza and those are people who may be comfortable in some ways with the status quo but they're a very small minority so i would i would say that you can you just need to go there to the occupied territories and see how much people are suffering and how angry they are at the status quo last year palestine received an elevated status at the united negro complete that that helped the palestinian or has helped the palestinian authority in any way in its ongoing negotiations for for a peace deal unfortunately it hasn't i think it might have but the way in which it's been employed has unfortunately not in any way maximize the opportunities that

were opened to the palestinians and the palestinians could have pushed aggressively in variety of un forums like the international criminal court or unesco or elsewhere to try and stop violations that in this negotiating process have been ignored for decades these things should be brought to somebody that can do something about them and this admission this elevation of the status of palestine should have made that possible it has not because the past a majority hasn't done it they haven't done it precisely so why haven't they done well for reasons that must have to do with their own internal calculations they are dependent to some extent on american support and therefore they don't want to alienate the americans they're dependent to some extent on israeli i don't know what you want to call it the israelis not stepping all over them and so they're afraid to antagonize the israelis or or they are presumably willing to go along with this charade that's been going on for decades now of a so-called peace process in my view those are mistakes. how has the so-called

arab spring affected this this negotiation this peace process do you think it's had any effect on it do you think it's delayed the peace process do you think it's had the major powers including the u.s. slowdown when it comes to israel and palestine negotiations happening there rethink any kind of negotiations or tentative agreement what kind of effect has the arab spring i think it has not that much of an effect or not though i think that the situation of the arab world and the unwillingness of the mostly undemocratic governments throughout the arab world has measurably increased the complicated don't put it differently has made this problem harder to resolve because the arab governments have really not put their money where their mouth is they have not really forcefully acted. in terms of the palestine question the way that they say that there are many terms of their infertility many well egypt or other look at the situation internally in egypt i mean given those kind of complications you can sort

of understand why the egyptians get pay much attention to this and what i would say is this if the arab countries were seriously addressed as as they claim to be you would have heard a lot more about the arab peace initiative in the many many many years since it was announced i want saudi arabia or when quit or when a major arab country that has significant financial resources wants to make a point about something it has the means to do that they haven't i would argue though that the arab spring has the potential to change the democratic regimes when and if they can be established will have to answer to their own people and their public opinion feels very strongly about this issue you want to the first to make it to present these arguments that you're now presenting in your book and you probably will not be fortunately what do you hope that readers get from your book well i would hope american readers would get an understanding of the fact that they're being lied to by the politicians and to some extent by the mainstream american media there is not a peace process and united states is not a force for good in this conflict. it is made the situation considerably worse over

the past three and a half decades when we went to madrid in october one thousand nine hundred one there were two hundred thousand israeli settlers in the occupied west bank in occupied arab east jerusalem there almost six hundred thousand now as a result of events that were things developments that were allowed to take place while supposedly a peace process or undergo was and was underway i would argue that those those developments have made a two state solution impossible as somebody has to be held accountable for this and a different approach i think has to be found we have yet another administration trying to follow the same approach basically president carter negotiated back in seventy eight at camp david autonomy and piecemeal step by step confidence building all this should be thrown out the window this has to be negotiate on the basis of international law on the basis of clear principles and say we want to get to this and we have to do it in this way not not in any way the way in which it's been pursued up till now but if the u.s. remains the main broker cannot happen do you think that this these negotiations

with the better off if the u.s. was removed from the research is not going to be removed because the united states is the sole superpower the united states is the nine hundred pound gorilla on the block and that is that are going anywhere however the addition of any other party almost literally any country on the face of the earth with the exception of a few south pacific islands the vote for the united states no matter what with all due respect anybody would be a better mediator than the united states almost literally anybody because united states has shown such a degree of bias and is so closely connected to the israeli position on so many issues here is a message i would have and in the book others i mean is this not a vital interest for europeans for russia for india for china they get their energy from the east this is a vital interest for them america doesn't get its energy from middle east it's going to energy sufficient like russia very soon but the countries that get their energy from middle east. i have a vital interest in doing something about this and they have just but they've done

very very little i think they have to push a lot harder for a little more fairness a little more even handedness in mediating this conflict dr rashid khalidi thank you very much for your time it was a pleasure thank you. carlos . he. says. choose your language. week over the influential senators feel some of the. right

to choose to use the consensus here to. choose the opinions that immigrate to. choose to stories could impact the lives choose your access to office or. world. series technology innovation called the list of elements from around russia we've got the huge earth covered. live.

live live. live .

tonight president obama says there's evidence chemical weapons have been used in syria but pledges that should only if it's proved that were used by president assad . targeted terror in damascus to a bomb explodes in a busy square it's taken thirteen lives and wounded dozens in the second such

attack in as many days. as war on corruption in afghanistan ends up feeding the warlords and drug cartels as revelations of much that washington has been showering kabul with millions of dollars. how life now is.